Winter Wolf(63)
“Never touch me again!” Any anxiety she’d felt before had vanished. Now Katalina was the one who stood rigid with tension, her blood hot with anger. “I don’t care who you are, no one has the right to touch me in that way.”
Bass’s armed reached out and pulled her gently backward. She went willingly into his warm embrace.
Their actions seemed to snap Jackson from his shock, his angry mask slipping once more into place.
“This cannot happen,” he ground out through clenched teeth, his finger pointing between them. “He is Dark Shadow, Katalina. I forbid this!”
“Forbid it! Forbid it!” Katalina growled in frustration, stepping forward; her angry gaze fixed on Jackson. “Have you heard yourself? You can’t forbid me to do anything. I will love who I wish. I will do exactly what I WISH!” Her voice rose the more she talked. Her blood was on fire, any minute she was going to combust.
“Katalina, will you just stop and think about this for a minute. He’s Dark Shadow, you are River Run. Whether you want to be or not, that is who you are. My blood runs through your veins.”
Katalina sucked in an angry breath and blew it out as she looked at the floor. “I honestly can’t see why that is a problem? It shouldn’t matter who I’m with as long as they love me. You say you’re my father, but you act nothing like one. All that should matter to you is that I’m happy and I’m loved. I know that’s what my dad would want for me.” She looked up from the ground seeing indecision cloud Jackson’s eyes.
His hands came up, angrily running through his long, messy red hair. With hands pressed tightly over his eyes, his voice was low and defeated. “It was never supposed to be this way.”
“Maybe you're right, Jackson. Maybe I was supposed to be with Cage. Maybe I was supposed to grow up with my pack, my family. Cage and I would have been best friends and teenage sweethearts. Maybe we would have married, and had those precious, pure blood babies you so desperately want. Maybe that is how my life should have been, but it never turned out that way, did it?”
Katalina let out a long breath before continuing. “You gave me away before I was even one. Dumped me on a doorstep. I didn’t grow up with a pack. I grew up with normal parents, in a normal home. I wasn’t a shifter. I was just an ordinary human girl. But then you changed your mind, and that decision cost me my parents, the life I knew. You’ve dragged me into this brutal world, a world that makes no sense to me, one full of blood and death, where it’s perfectly okay to attack one another.” Glancing away, she stared at the horizon, focusing on nothing. “I feel lost here, Jackson. Every decision you’ve made for me since I turned eighteen has cut me. My heart bleeds because of you and decisions you have made. I have lost everything I’ve ever known and you don’t seem to give a shit. And now you want to take away the only person I have left away, the one thing that makes sense in this life, yet I can’t have him? Well, guess what, Jackson? I honestly couldn’t give a damn what you want. I hate you for everything you’ve done to me. Do you understand that?”
She stood breathing heavily. Feeling too angry to cry, too angry to move, she stared at the man with whom she shared DNA and wondered what parts of him she’d inherited. The angry, bitter and twisted man before her held no resemblance.
The silence between them was a palpable thing. Thick and heavy it seemed to choke the air from their lungs until finally Jackson spoke. His green eyes looked up but connected with Bass, not Katalina.
“She says she loves you, but do you love her?”
“She’s my mate,” Bass replied, matter of fact.
Jackson nodded. “I’m trying to work out what you’re planning. Do you want River Run or do you simply wish to destroy me by taking the last link I have to my Winter?”
Bass frowned as he thought over Jackson’s words. He didn’t seem offended by what he’d said but Katalina sure was.
“How dare you! Can’t he just love me for me! Not everything is about your freaking pack!”
“Katalina, its fine.” Bass ran his hand gently across her face. “Jackson has every right to know my intentions. After all, I did go into that shed to kill you.”
Jackson’s growl cut Bass short.
Katalina saw the slightest smile cross Bass’s lips before his neutral expression returned. She finally understood what Nico meant by him talking himself out of arguments. Jackson looked physically in pain trying to control his anger. He looked as if he’d love nothing more than to punch Bass, but while Bass was so calm, he could do nothing but try to restrain himself.